Category Archives: Posttraumatic Growth

I have written elsewhere on this site in several previously published posts how, ultimately, even extremely serious and protracted trauma can lead to what is termed posttraumatic growth which involves an individual developing in ways that would not have occurred had it not been for his / her traumatic experiences.

One such positive outcome which may follow trauma is that of a transformation of the pain one has suffered into acts of creativity – three examples that spring immediately to mind are Dostoevsky’s The House Of The Dead, Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning and Wilde’s De Profundis.

David Aberbach, author of the highly recommended book Surviving Trauma : Loss And Literature, has made a study of the association between trauma (specifically, unresolved grief) and creativity and, in so doing, has drawn several interesting conclusions. I summarise these conclusions below :

• creativity in response to trauma provides a much-needed sense of control after the traumatic experience itself has undermined one’s sense of control.

• distressing emotional activity can be positively channelled – there is a quote from Virginia Wolfe, which reflects this idea :

‘How many times have people used a pen or paintbrush because they couldn’t pull the trigger?’ – Virginia Wolfe.

• one becomes aware of qualities that exist within oneself that have been lying dormant and that would not have been revealed were it not for the traumatic catalyst.
• the trauma itself may not be fully mastered, but a sense of compensation for this can be achieved by mastering something else of significance.
• the creative work may be of great value to others – so something positive has come out of one’s negative experiences, reducing our self-destructive feelings that the time spent living through the trauma has been wasted.

STUDY OF 234 PROFESSIONAL PERFORMERS :

A longitudinal study carried out at California State University found that those who had suffered significantly traumatic childhoods were more likely than those who had experienced relatively stable childhoods to experience intensely creative impulses (as well as psychological pathologies, as firmly established by a vast array of other research, much of which is examined on this site).

The study involved 232 participants comprising :

• 20 musicians and opera singers.
• 129 dancers.
• 83 actors, directors and designers.

Using self-reports provided from the participants, the researchers found those who had suffered extremely high levels of childhood trauma were more prone to internalized shame, anxiety and fantasies.

They also found that this group of participants were more engaged with creative processes and more likely to experience feelings of inspiration.

Furthermore, these individuals were found to be particularly receptive to art in general and had a greater appreciation of the transformational power of creativity.

Based on these findings, the researchers hypothesized that the creative process may be related to an individual’s resilience in the face of adversity.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, THE BRAIN, DISSOCIATION AND CREATIVITY :

We have seen from numerous other articles that I have previously published on this site that those who have suffered severe and protracted childhood trauma are at risk of suffering impaired physical development of the brain in regions such as the hippocampus and the amygdala due to the excessive need to be hypervigilant (because of constant fear of a parent or primary caretaker becoming abusive – either emotionally or physically – which can lead to us becoming trapped in a perpetual state of ‘fight or flight’ ; this, in turn, can lead to the brain being over-exposed to adrenalin as we are growing up, which is one of the factors that cause the physical harm).

However, in such circumstances, the brain can also protect itself by inducing in the trauma victim feelings of dissociation (in relation to this, you may wish to read my previously published articles; ‘Two Opposite Ways The Child Responds To Stress: Hypervigilance And Dissociation’ or ‘Is Your Predominant Response To Trauma Flooding Or Dissociation?’).

Dissociation is a defence mechanism which helps the individual to disconnect mentally from the reality of their traumatic circumstances – so it can be viewed as a self-protective mental escape which may, for example, include going into a ‘fantasy world’ or developing ‘imaginary friends’, (both of which psychologically protective techniques are themselves forms of creativity) – and research suggests (e.g. Ross) that such psychological processes may help protect the brain from physical harm (or, more specifically, from atrophying).

Indeed, there is also increasing evidence of a link between acute dissociative states, ‘hyperassociative cognition’ / ‘fluidity of association’ and creativity (Van der Kloet et al. 2013 / Chakravarty, 2010). Interestingly, too, this area of research has produced evidence suggesting that those who suffer from severe dissociation as a result of trauma are also prone to sleep disturbance and may experience less deep sleep and more R.E.M. sleep (R.E.M. sleep is the stage of sleep in which we dream / experience nightmares – dreaming/experiencing nightmares, too, of course, are forms creative activity, albeit an unconscious ones).

‘All that we see and seem is but a dream within a dream. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.‘ Edgar Allan Poe.

OTHER THEORIES :

• Forgeard (University of Pennsylvania) suggests that those suffering from mental anguish may use creative activities as a form of self-therapy.
• ‘Orphanhood Effect’: This term refers to the theory that those individuals orphaned early in life are more likely than the average individual to develop creative talents (especially as writers). According to Csikszentmihalyi, this phenomenon may be due to the fact that losing one’s parents early in life can lead to social isolation which, in turn, may mean the individual is less likely to be indoctrinated with the kind of socially conventional thinking which could inhibit creativity.
• Shattered Assumptions Theory: If we suffer severe trauma, a frequent effect is that our ‘pre-trauma’ view of the world is ‘shattered’ and, as a result. we see the world ‘through new eyes.’ This can lead to the kind of new and original insights that fuel creativity.

Boost Your Creativity and Realise Your Creative Potential

David Hosier BSc Hons; MSc; PGDE(FAHE).

THE INDOCTRINATION OF NEGATIVE CORE BELIEFS :

Many of us who have experienced significant and protracted childhood trauma have, as adults, suffered from the inadvertent internalization of our parents’ (or caretakers’) attitude and feelings towards us as we were growing up and, as a result, may have come to develop deeply painful core beliefs about ourselves ; commonly, these beliefs revolve around a deeply entrenched self-concept of being ‘unlovable’ and ‘bad‘, particularly if we were rejected (either explicitly or implicitly).

Compounding this problem, for reasons I have explained elsewhere, we may have idealized our parents – even if we were badly abused by them, making our internaliztion of their damaging attitudes and behaviors even more unshakable and tenacious.

One way we may be able to address our fixation upon these debilitating, self-lacerating ideas about ourselves, instilled in us when we were profoundly vulnerable, and to free ourselves from the feelings of torment they induce, is by REFRAMING THE PAST.

WHAT DOES REFRAMING THE PAST ENTAIL ?

Reframing the past involves giving ourselves the power to see our true potential, unsullied by what our parents (either deliberately or as a function of their lack of sensitivity / insight) might have taught us to believe (e.g. that we are worthless and uncceptable as a human being).

In so doing, we can potentially be free from viewing ourselves through the distorted lense we have so far, through no fault of our own and as if hypnotized by an evil mesmerist, gaze through.

In this way, we can hopefully start to see what we may really be able to achieve in important areas of life, such as relationships and work. opening up opportunities for ourselves that may otherwise have been denied us.

THE RELEVANCE OF THE CONCEPT OF POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH :

According to the psychiatrist, Harold Bloomfield, author of the excellent book : ‘Making Peace With The Past’, whilst we are obviously impotent to change the past, what we are able to do is to change how we experience it, our attitude to it and how it emotionally affects us from now on by changing our (hitherto) habitual response to it.

In relation to this, Bloomfield advises us to reinterpret the implications of the traumatic events of our childhood by asking ourselves questions such as how the experiences have made us stronger and what wisdom we have gained from them.

Indeed, there is a whole field of study devoted to investigating how traumatic experiences can actually, ultimately, improve us as an individual called posttraumatic growth (about which I have published several articles on this site previously – e.g. you may wish to read my post entitled : ‘The Main Elements Of Posttraumatic Growth.‘).

You may also wish to read my related post : Posttraumatic Growth : Reconstructing The Life Story We Tell Ourselves.

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David Hosier BSc Hons; MSc; PGDE(FAHE).

One of the major effects of childhood trauma, especially if it has led us, as adults, to develop conditions such as borderline personality disorder or complex posttraumatic stress disorder, is that it can radically alter our most fundamental and core beliefs about how the world and our lives operate.

In this way, prolonged and significant childhood trauma can transform the core belief that the world is generally a safe place for us to inhabit into the opposite core belief that ‘the world is a dangerous and threatening place and I must be constantly on guard and hypervigilant.’

This idea is reflected in Professor Janoff-Bulman’s (University of Massuhusetts Amherst) ‘SHATTERED ASSUMPTIONS’ THEORY (1992) which proposes (amongst other things) that the experience of trauma can eradicate the optimistic view that, as long as we do the right things in life, everything will be O.K. In other words, our (pre-trauma) assumption that we are safe in the world is shattered.

REBUILDING ASSUMPTIONS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR POST TRAUMATIC GROWTH :

When our fundamental assumptions about the world are shattered in this way, it is necessary, according to Janoff-Bulman, for us to rebuild our internal, mental representation of the world and it has been proposed that two therapies that can help us to achieve this are : cognitive processing therapy and exposure therapy.

Such therapies can help us to ‘cognitively restructure’ our view of our traumatic experience, ourselves and the world in general. This ‘cognitive restructuring’ process may entail, at first, attempting to make sense of the traumatizing events we have lived through ; initially, this may give rise to automatic thoughts relating to our trauma that we find intrusive and distressing.

However, later on in the process, such negative ruminations can transform into more positive thoughts and feelings, such as finding meaning in what has happened to us, learning to accept our view of the world might have changed and coming to a mental accommodation with this fact, and, ulimately, acquiring greater wisdom and personal / spiritual growth, also known as POST TRAUMATIC GROWTH.

David Hosier BSc Hons; MSc; PGDE(FAHE).